Kitchen Remodeling in Burbank
Green Design and Build is a licensed general contractor (CSLB #1110975) based at 16120 Sherman Way in Van Nuys, about fifteen minutes from Burbank along Sherman Way, Victory Boulevard or the 170. We build kitchens here as a design-build contractor, so the drawings, the permit and the construction come from one company under one contract.
Burbank is its own city with its own building department, and its permit process is genuinely different from the City of Los Angeles next door. That difference is worth understanding before you plan a kitchen, because it decides whether your job waits eight weeks or none.
A Burbank kitchen we built
This kitchen was done as part of a complete home remodel, finished in 2025: full-height shaker cabinetry, quartz counters, a mitred waterfall island, a second prep island, a plaster hood, a professional range and a built-in wine fridge.
The full project, with photographs: Kitchen remodel in Burbank.
What Burbank requires — Tier 1 and Tier 2
Permits come from the Community Development Department, Building & Safety Division, at the Community Services Building, 150 N. Third Street — not City Hall, which is a common mistake. The counter is open Monday to Thursday 8:00am to 3:30pm and Friday 8:00am to 3:00pm, closed noon to 1:00pm, and the queue closes fifteen minutes before lunch and before closing. You can join the queue online before you travel.
The exemption
Burbank exempts “painting, papering, tiling, carpeting, counter tops, and similar finish work” from permits. So a countertop swap on its own is exempt. Touch electrical, plumbing, mechanical or structure and you are in permit territory — Burbank states plainly that permits are required for remodels and alterations, “including repair and maintenance for electrical, plumbing, and mechanical work.”
The distinction that matters: no interior wall demolition
Burbank sorts permits into two tiers. Tier 1 is simple work that does not require plan check, and the city’s Tier 1 list explicitly includes “Kitchen and Bathroom Remodels with no interior wall demolition.” It also covers electrical service upgrades, rewiring or re-piping an existing residential system, gas piping, drywall replacement, and window replacements that do not increase the size of the opening or create a new one.
Tier 2 is everything that needs plan check — additions, alterations, ADUs, new dwellings.
So: a Burbank kitchen that keeps the walls intact can carry new electrical, new plumbing runs, gas work and same-size window replacement and still be a Tier 1 permit, obtainable online through Burbank Online Permits or over the counter, with no plan check. Remove an interior wall, or enlarge a window opening, and it becomes Tier 2.
That matters because Burbank publishes a first plan check review of up to eight weeks, with rechecks of two to four weeks. Keeping a kitchen inside Tier 1 is the difference between starting next month and starting after the summer.
Two Burbank requirements homeowners do not expect
The whole-house water fixture retrofit
Burbank’s plan check correction list requires certification that non-compliant plumbing fixtures have been replaced with water-conserving fixtures under California Civil Code sections 1101.1 to 1101.8. This is a whole-house obligation, not limited to the kitchen — pulling a permit for your kitchen can mean bringing toilets and showerheads elsewhere in the house into compliance. The kitchen faucet standard cited is 1.8 gallons per minute at 60 psi.
Burbank Water and Power comes first on a panel upgrade
BWP is Burbank’s own municipal utility. If the kitchen needs a main service panel upgrade, the property owner has to request a meter spot evaluation from BWP before pulling the permit. The sequence BWP publishes is: request the meter spot, wait for approval, then apply for permits including the panel upgrade. Started early it costs nothing; discovered late it stops the job.
Burbank also requires approved smoke alarms on permitted alterations above a modest value threshold, and carbon monoxide alarms where there is a fuel-fired appliance, fireplace or attached garage — which in practice means most permitted kitchen remodels trigger a whole-house alarm upgrade.
Burbank adopted the 2025 California Building Standards Code effective 1 January 2026. Confirm current requirements with Building & Safety at (818) 238-5220 before committing to a scope — we do this on every job.
What a kitchen costs in Burbank
We publish three working tiers for a Los Angeles kitchen. They hold in Burbank as well as anywhere else in the Valley — what moves the number is the size of the room, whether walls move, and the finishes.
| Tier | Typical range | What it usually means |
|---|---|---|
| Refit | $25,000–$40,000 | Cabinets, counters, appliances and finishes replaced in the existing layout. Nothing structural. |
| Reconfigure | $40,000–$70,000 | Layout changes, an island added, plumbing and electrical moved, often a wall opened up. |
| Full rebuild | $70,000–$100,000 | Down to the framing, structural changes, new windows, custom cabinetry and higher-end appliances. |
These are typical Los Angeles budgeting estimates, not a price list or a quote. Your project can come in lower or higher depending on the house, the scope and the finishes; the only real number is a written proposal after a site visit.
The detail behind those tiers — where the money actually goes, and what pushes a kitchen from one tier to the next — is in our Los Angeles kitchen remodel cost guide.
Questions we get asked
Do I need a permit to remodel a kitchen in Burbank?
A countertop replacement on its own is exempt, along with painting, tiling and similar finish work. Anything involving electrical, plumbing, mechanical or structural work needs a permit — Burbank states that permits are required for remodels including repair and maintenance of electrical, plumbing and mechanical systems.
Will my Burbank kitchen need plan check?
Not if you keep the interior walls. Burbank lists “kitchen and bathroom remodels with no interior wall demolition” as a Tier 1 permit, which does not require plan check and can be obtained online or over the counter. Remove a wall and it becomes Tier 2, which does.
How long does plan check take in Burbank?
The city publishes a first review of up to eight weeks, with rechecks of two to four weeks. That is why the Tier 1 distinction matters so much — a kitchen that keeps its walls avoids that queue entirely.
Why would a kitchen permit make me change fixtures in my bathrooms?
Because Burbank enforces the California Civil Code requirement that non-compliant plumbing fixtures throughout the house be replaced with water-conserving ones when a remodel permit is issued. It surprises most homeowners, and it is worth budgeting for rather than discovering at plan check.
We want a bigger window over the sink. Does that change the permit?
Yes. Burbank’s Tier 1 window item covers replacements that do not increase the size of the existing window and do not create a new opening. Enlarging the opening moves the job into Tier 2 plan check.
Do you handle the Burbank Water and Power side of a panel upgrade?
Yes. The meter spot request has to go in before the permit, so we start it at the front of the job rather than when the electrician arrives.
Related: Kitchen remodeling across Los Angeles · General contractor in Burbank · Kitchen remodel cost guide · ADU contractor in Burbank · Our projects
Tell us about your Burbank kitchen
Send us the basics — the size of the kitchen, whether you want to move any walls, and roughly when you would like to start — and we will come out, take measurements and put a written scope and estimate in front of you within about 48 hours of the visit.